Mike Riddle tops the field at Dew Tour superpipe semifinal

It’s day two of action here at the Dew Tour iON Mountain Championships in Breckenridge. On the docket this morning: the men’s superpipe semifinal.

21 athletes dropped into Breck’s 22′ pipe, gunning for 10 available spots in Friday’s superpipe final. Each athlete had two runs to impress the judges—best score counts. With half the field facing elimination today, the caliber of riding was exceptionally high.

Checking in with Mike Riddle, Dew Tour at Breckenridge—superpipe semifinals

Reno, Nevada’s David Wise was not far behind Riddle with an even 87. Wise opened his run with a switch 7 on the right wall and followed up with a rightside 9, double cork 12, alley-oop flatspin 5, left 9 and a rightside 7.

And finishing third in the semifinal round was Canadian pipe-maestro, Justin Dorey, who scored an 86.50. Dorey led with a massive rightside double cork 12, and linked his opener with a left 9, air-to-fakie, switch 7 and back-to-back alley-oop flat 5s. Dorey noted post-semifinal, “I landed my first run of the first big comp of the season, which is very unusual for me [laughs], so I feel amazing. Good to get it out of the way and make it through to tomorrow’s finals when we can really send it.” Will we see back-to-back double cork 12s out of Dorey tomorrow? We can only hope.

Other noteworthy performances today came from Kevin Rolland, who’s going as big as ever coming off knee surgery; Matt Margetts, whose first-hit, down-the-pipe flatspin is a thing of beauty; Byron Wells, also back in top-notch form post knee surgery and Tanner Hall, who opened both of his runs with a formidable 1260. Look for all of these competitors to step up their game come tomorrow’s final.

The women’s final kicks off tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. MT. The men’s final begins at 3:00 p.m. Those in the area are encouraged to come and cheer on the athletes. Others can tune in to the men’s final via the NBC Sports Network, beginning at 5:00 p.m. ET. Alli Sports intends to utilize a “never-before-seen cable cam angle” to showcase the action—you won’t want to miss it. For a daily event schedule, plus a listing of TV broadcast times, follow this link.

Fantasy Freeride players are undoubtedly paying close attention to today’s results, anxious to see if their drafted athletes advanced to tomorrow’s final. For all things Fantasy related, check out fantasyfreeride.com.

Be sure to stay tuned as we’ll continue to bring you the best coverage of Dew Tour. Keep tabs on our Instagram feed for behind-the-scenes snapshots. In just a few hours, we’re off to the site of tonight’s big air final—beginning at 5:30 p.m. MT. NBC Sports Network will be airing the event live, beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET.